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account of what I saw, from notes jotted down at the time in
my diary. But a few words of introduction are needful to
explain something of the system on which the Count and his
helpers proceeded.
I met the Countess Tolstoi at their house in Moscow on my
journey through. Here she carried on the correspondence
concerning the relief work, while her husband held his
headquarters at Rjasan, and the young Count Lyeff Lvovitch made
Samara his centre of active operations. Countess Sophia
Andreevna Tolstoi is tall and stately-looking, and retains the
freshness and elasticity of her youth to a remarkable degree.
Her power of work is simply wonderful. I saw a great pile of
letters and telegrams she had received that day from all parts
of the world. Some related to the department of relief work
under her own care, which may be called the wholesale
department; she was responsible for buying the immense
quantities of different food-stuffs required, and despatching
them to Rjasan and Samara. Others consisted of appeals for
help from starving districts, but most were concerned with the
financial part of the work, contributions from friends in
different countries, inquiries, &c. In all this she was without
the help of any secretary. “It has grown to be a habit with
me,” she said, “to answer all letters myself. Otherwise 1
cannot feel perfectly satisfied.”
As regards the relief work proper, carried on by the Count
and his son, it must not be imagined from what has previously
been quoted from his criticisms of official methods, that
Tolstoi himself neglected organisation or method, depending
entirely on individual impulse. He recognised the futility of
it all as a cure, but for the present purpose of helping the
starving peasants in their terrible emergency he was quite
alive to the importance of so ordering the work as to be most
efficient. His view of the case was well put in the
conversation I had with him on the matter. He said : “I will use an
illustration to give you an idea of the state of things.
Suppose this little round table placed in a distillery and
covered with bottles of different sizes, all of which are filled
with spirits. Beneath the table is a fierce heat that causes
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